Nobody Hurt But Escape Was Lucky One

Chronicle (Levin), 2 August 1949, Page 7

Nobody Hurt But Escape Was Lucky One

Correspondent

(From G. King, Special

with the Ail Blacks). Received Monday, 11.32 p.m. GWELO, Aug. 1. The All Black Rugby touring party had a narrow escape in the early hours of this morning when the train in which they were departing from Rhodesia en route to Pretoria, cauie into collision with the imail train traveliing in the opposite direction midway between Salisbury and Bulawayo, at 2.10 a.m. The native coal trimmer in the Salisbury engine was fatally injured and four other natives were taken to the nearly town of Que-Que for medical attention. The driver of the Salisbury train was also slightly Lnjured. The is a single traclc between Salisbury and Btilawayo and the Salisbury train appearod to have overrun the small siding where the trains were due to cross.

The emergencv brakes were applied when the engines were only a few hundred yards apart and liiany passengers became conscious of impending trouble when the night air was rent by the screeching noise of brakes on rails aua ' by emergency whistles. Fortunately the speed of both trains was thus eon-| siderablv reduced but the head-on, impact was sucli as to cause one carriage to be partly telescoped and unother to be hurled on to the embankment. This led to some amazing escapes. The engines became interlocked and one was partly derailed by the impact. The tender oi' -the Salisbury train on which the All Blacks were travelling, telescoped into part of the adjoining carriage and some passengers in this carriage who liad ,just boarded the train of Que-Que, were iiurled to the fioor and •aught under the wrecked coachwor'k but'emerged with only minor injuries The carriage behind the Bulawayo engine, carrying natives, was hurled off the traek and turned on its side but apart from the four natives alreadv mentioned, there were no serious injuries and these people scrambled' io ' The All Blacks were in three coaches

at the rear of the train. The full f orce of the collision caused several of the team to be forcibly ejected from " their bunks but apart from this discomiiture and the f act that several were hit and slightly bruised by falling luggage, they escaped unscathed. The manager, Mr Parker, af ter ' qtuickly ascertainmg that his team were all safe and weli, proceeaed to the scene of the collision and offered the services of the team but ciiis was not found necessary. However, Ronald Elvidge, the Otago doctor memoer of the side, assisted two other doetors in giving medical attention to those slightly injured. The native in the engine was trapped in the cabin and an acetylene burnei had to be used to extricate liim. ' tlc was tlien found to be dea'd. An heroic attempt was made to release him by a raiiwayman immediately after the colii sion, when steam was still hissing vio lently out of the engine but he was so tightly wedged in by twisted steelwora that this valiant eft'ort proved unavailing.

The driver of this engine was pinnel against the combination box but wasoon extricated and taken to Que-Que for attention to minor injuries. The driver and flreman of the othe: engine, H. F. hlcKenzie and D. JacK son, were able to jump clear in the nick of time. McKenzie said later. "1 first saw the headlights of - the other train a few hundred yards away and imuie diatelv jammed on iny, emergency brakes but it was impossible to avoid a collision. " Casualties " in the coach which was hurled oT the line might have been much more serious but for the iact tha. ;he chassis snapped clean oif the under carriage and feil clear on to the e:n bankment. A further reason for this miraculous escape by the natives rn this coach, was that it was an open one, one long compartment with seating ben ches. It did not splinter badly and the natives were abie to crawl out. Soon eampfires werAset gomg around which the natives in the train gathereJ to keep warm. The European passengers after rendering what help tjhey coubl and ascertaining that nothing more could be done, returned to their bunks. Four hours after the collision relief engines arrived and the passengers mterchanged trains which later proceeded to their scheduled destinations.